The great 41-year-old Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka will play in the third round of this year’s Australian Open after he defeated the Frenchman Arthur Gea 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(10-3) in the second round, after a four and a half hour battle.
12 years ago Wawrinka won the cup winner at the Australian Open, after the final victory against Rafael Nadal.
This is, as he himself announced, his last year of professional tennisbut still has something to offer on the field. He defeated a 20-year-younger rival, a French qualifier, who was better than the Czech Jiri Lehečka in the first round.
The French tennis player had a lead of 1-0 and 2-1 in the sets. Persistent Wawrinka came back from both deficits, and then took a 2-0 lead at the beginning of the decisive, fifth set.
It’s fast Wawrinka dropped that advantageand with a 4-3 lead, he missed as many as four break opportunities that could have brought him to 5-3 and a step towards victory. The duel went to the very end, to the tie-break of the decisive fifth set.
In the culmination of the match, Wawrinka was in the lead almost the whole time. From 2-2 he escaped to 5-2. The Swiss showed a lot in the tie-break of the fifth set. From beautiful backhand, great lob for 7-3, and it was given away by the opponent who made two double service faults at the end of the match.
In the very end, all the hours on the field left more of a mark on the 21-year-old Gea, who had a harder time enduring the efforts than the 41-year-old legend of this sport.
In the next round, Wawrinka will play against the American Taylor Fritz.
Fritz defeated Czech Vito Kopriva 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4).
APARTMENT. WAWRINKA. 👏
The Swiss legend defeats Arthur Gea in a blockbuster five set thriller to advance to R3! 🇨🇭@stanwawrinka • @wwos • @espn • @tntsports • @wowowtennis • #AO26 pic.twitter.com/Mkrbv9edtN
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2026
Sinner also passed
Italian tennis player Jannik Sinnerthe Australian Open second seed, played another easy match at the first Grand Slam of the year, defeating home player James Duckworth 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.
Sinner had no problems against a player who was better than the Croatian tennis player in the first round Dina Prižmić. The match lasted one hour and 50 minutes, and the Italian won as many as 14 break points, of which he used five. On the other hand, he saved three break chances that the Australian, otherwise ranked 88th in the world, had.
Sinner like that sovereignly continues the journey towards a possible third triumph in a row at the Australian Open, and his next opponent is the American Eliot Spizzirri, who beat the Chinese Wu 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(4), 4-6, 6-3.
Australian Open, 2nd round tennis players:
Jakub Menšik (Czech Republic/16) – Rafael Jodar (Spain) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
Karen Khachanov (15) – Nishesh Basavareddy (USA) 6-1, 6-4, 6-3
Valentin Vacherot (Mon/30) – Rinky Hijikata (Aus) 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Luciano Darderi (Ita/22) – Sebastain Baez (Arg) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
Lorenzo Musetti (Ita/5) – Lorenzo Sonego (Ita) 6-3, 6-3, 6-4
Ben Shelton (USA/8) – Dane Sweeny (Aus) 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
Ethan Quinn (USA) – Hubert Hurkacz (Poland) 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-1
Novak Djokovic (Serb/4) – Francesco Maestrelli (Ita) 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
Botic van de Zandschulp (Niz) – Juncheng Shang (China) 7-6(6), 6-2, 6-3
Stan Wawrinka (Swiss) – Arthur Gea (France) 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(3)
Eliot Spizzirri (USA) – Yibing Wu (China) 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(4), 4-6, 6-3
Tomas Machač (Czech Republic) – Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece/31)
Marin Čilić (Croatian) – Denis Shapovalov (Kan/21) 6-4, 6-3, 6-2
Taylor Fritz (USA/9) – Vit Kopriva (Czech Republic) 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4)
Jannik Sinner (Ita/2) – James Duckworth (Aus) 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
Australian Open, 2nd round tennis player:
Madison Keys (USA/9) – Ashlyn Krueger (USA) 6-1, 7-5
Oksana Selehmeteva – Paula Badosa (Spa/25) 6-4, 6-4
Jessica Pegula (USA/6) – McCartney Kessler (USA) 6-0, 6-2
Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) – Janice Tjen (Ind) 6-4, 6-4
Peyton Stearns (USA) – Petra Marcinko (Croatia) 6-2, 7-5
Ana Kalinskaja (31) – Julia Grabher (Out) 6-3, 6-3
Linda Noskova (Czech/13) – Taylah Preston (Aus) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
Maddison Inlis (Aus) – Laura Siegemund (Germany) 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(7)
Xinyu Wang (China) – Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Amanda Anisimova (USA/4) – Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-1, 6-4
Elise Mertens (Bel/21) – Moyuka Uchijima (Japan) 6-3, 6-1
Tereza Valentova (Czech Republic) – Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
Nikola Bartunkova (Czech) – Belinda Bencic (Swi/10) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4
Iga Swiatek (Poland/2) – Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) 6-2, 6-3
Naomi Osaka (Jap/16) – Sorana Cirstea (Rum) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Jelena Ribakina (Kaz/5) – Varvara Gracheva (France) 7-5, 6-2
(Hina | Photo: X)
